Dink on deck during crossings?

[AndytheSailor]

Just sailed from Greece to UK with dinghy blown up and lashed on the foredeck. Made sense to me. I have a liferaft as well but preferred to have the dinghy to hand. I didn't actually use it until Salcombe. Hope this helps.

[rognvald]

We break down our dinghy and and store it in its canvas case aft of the mast for passages. We learned our lesson on a shakedown sail in fairly lumpy seas in the Gulfstream(4-6 feet) with our dinghy in its davits and a 5 HP outboard on its stern. We could not control the swinging of the dinghy although it was well secured( as recommended by the manufacturer) and the chafe was disconcerting even though we were only out for the day. If we had been on passage, I believe we would have had a serious problem if I wasn't able to remove the outboard from the dinghy. Subsequently, I have since removed our davits(quite expensive brand) and use a halyard to deploy the dinghy. If we were strictly bay sailors, we would still use our davits. However, on a 34 foot light/medium displacement "racer/cruiser" it does not work and the far safer method is storage on deck.

[Littlechay]

I store a hard dinghy on the foredeck because it doesn't fit between the mast and the dodger; my preference would be fore a clean deck. But for me having a hard dinghy that rows well in a breeze is important. I have installed through bolted pad-eyes on the deck custom to the dinghy and tie it down with a couple of lashing using truckers hitches to get it cinched up tight.

I have used medium to large inflatables (up to 4m with 25HP motors) on some of the charter boats I have worked on. I could lift these and plant them on the foredeck alone.

The trick (when your alone) is to have the tender laying alongside the wrong way around i.e. the tenders bow faces the yacht's stern.

Haul the tender aloft until it can clear the guardwires; at this point it will be resting against the shrouds.

You can now pivot the tender around the shrouds swinging the stern in and pulling the bow forward. Takes practice but once you have the technique down it takes seconds.

Lower the tender into its resting place, throw your lashings over, tighten and your done.

I wouldn't fancy having a large inflatable on the foredeck in any conditions where greenies are going to cross the deck.

I don't like davits for ocean passage making; I've seen a few ripped off or bent with varying amounts of damage to the dinghies. Many folk remove the dinghy from davits for ocean passage making, deflate it and tie it to the coach roof.

My experience and my opinions